ARTS, BRIEFLY; Gift To Smithsonian Is Rescinded

By ROBIN POGREBIN

Published: November 17, 2007

The American Petroleum Institute has rescinded a controversial $5 million gift to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History's Ocean Initiative exhibition hall. The Smithsonian said it received notice of the withdrawal in a one-sentence letter from the institute. The Smithsonian Board of Regents had been scheduled to vote on Monday on whether to accept the donation. Cristi?Samper, the former director of the natural history museum, who is now acting secretary of the Smithsonian, approved the gift, but some regents have questioned its appropriateness. Mr. Samper, a candidate for the secretary position, has been serving since March, when Lawrence M. Small resigned the post after revelations about lavish personal spending. The Washington Post reported yesterday that some government scientists had complained that Mr. Samper ordered last-minute changes to the museum's 2006 exhibition on the Arctic to avoid political problems. The additions suggested that there was scientific uncertainty about climate change, The Post said, but Linda St. Thomas, a Smithsonian spokeswoman, said yesterday that the show ''was never intended to be a comprehensive exhibition on climate change.''